Vigil honors victims in Utah guardsman's murder-suicide

Jul. 16, 2014 - 02:28PM
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People place candles during a vigil July 17 outside of the apartment where Johnathon Sadler and Mackenzie Madden were killed in Logan, Utah. The two were killed there earlier this week by a gunman in a murder-suicide. (John Zsiray / AP)

Morticians and Logan City police officers remove one of two gunshot victims from apartment complex on Monday, in Logan, Utah. Relatives joined Utah State University students and Logan police at a candlelight vigil Tuesday night in memory of 19-year-old Mackenzie Madden and 25-year-old Johnathon Sadler, who police say were killed by 23-year-old Army National Guardsman Jared Tolman, who later took his own life. (Jeff Hunter / AP)

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SALT LAKE CITY — Dozens of people gathered outside a Logan apartment complex for a candlelight vigil honoring two young people killed there earlier this week in a murder-suicide.

Relatives joined Utah State University students and Logan police Tuesday evening to remember Mackenzie Madden, 19, and Johnathon Sadler, 25. Organizers said they also wanted to show sympathy to family members of 23-year-old Army National Guard member Jared Tolman, the man who police say shot the two before committing suicide at another home.

“This is really for all of the individuals who lost lives that night and all of their families. It’s not exclusive to only Mackenzie and Johnathon, but also the Tolman family,” Natasha Carrell, a USU student who helped plan the memorial, told the Deseret News. “Everyone involved is mourning. They just need to know that people are thinking of them.”

Authorities said Tolman kicked down the door of Madden’s apartment early Monday morning and fatally shot her and Sadler with an assault rifle. Tolman killed himself later at another home, police said.

Sadler’s mother told the Logan Herald-Journal that her son and Madden had gone on their first date that night, and Sadler stayed with her after she received frightening text messages from Tolman.

“He said ‘I will stay and protect you,’ and now they’re both gone,” Sue Sadler told the newspaper.

Madden, a native of Idaho Falls, Idaho, was a sociology student at USU and had interned with the Logan Police Department last fall. Sadler was a manager at a Hyde Park construction company.

Investigators are looking at a suicide note that they say Tolman wrote before he left his home the night of the shootings.

“The note basically consisted of him saying he was sorry for what he was going to do and he knew it was selfish,” Logan Police Lt. Rod Peterson told the Deseret News.

Sue Sadler and her husband, Todd, addressed the crowd Tuesday night and encouraged them to be respectful and loving toward others.